This invention relates generally to solar collectors, and more particularly to highly efficient, low-cost, lightweight solar collection which have very simple construction.
There is a critical need for practical low cost solar collectors for residential and commercial building space and hot water heating applications. The same can be said for swimming pool heaters. Prior collectors are, in general, characterized by their relatively high cost and heavy construction necessitated by individual tubes of metal or heavy plastic. The latter must typically be individually attached in position in the collector with consequent excessive labor expense. Also, prior collectors do not have low profile construction and so do not blend in well with building roof or wall architectures.
More specifically, prior solar collectors have been made of metal absorbers of the fin and tube heat exchanger variety, placed in a metal frame insulated on the bottom with a glazing (usually glass) affixed to the top of the frame. The manifolds consisted of metal and there was a considerable amount of exposed piping.
Recently, a number of approaches involving flexible or hardened plastics have emerged. In this regard, the concept of using hard plastic extrusions to form glazings and cooling channels has been reduced to practice by a product called Twinwall Tuffak. Beyond that, the so-called Unitary Collector utilizes a bulky manifold, with no provision for sealing the ends of the manifold or connecting to external piping, and no practical indication of the hardware or other means necessary to mount it on the roof.